A typical microcontroller may contain a general purpose input/output (I/O) interface for purposes of communicating with devices that are external to the microcontroller. In this regard, the I/O interface may be used for such purposes as sampling analog signals; communicating digital signals; generating waveforms; providing signals that are used in connection with bidirectional communication lines (a bidirectional communication line of a serial bus, for example); and providing signals that are used for a control application.
As more specific examples, the I/O interface may generate and receive signals for purposes of communicating over a serial peripheral interface (SPI) bus, communicating over a system management bus (SMB) or providing a universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter (UART) interface. As another example, the microcontroller may generate pulse width modulation (PWM) signals that may be used for motor control or switching regulator control applications.